A “family test” will be applied to all new domestic policy in a bid to prevent the scenes of rioting and looting which shocked England recently, the Prime Minister has said.

David Cameron confirmed that the coalition government will shift its focus to families, family law and parenting as it attempts to repair what he described as Britain’s “broken society”.

He told a youth centre in his Witney constituency that many of those who took part in the civil disorder did not have a father figure in their home life and had instead sought male role models on the streets.